Improvement in making joint wire or stock for jewelry



YUNITED STATES *PATENTv OFFICE.

ANDREW J. WILEY, OF SOUTH I'YlTLEBOROUGII, MASSACHUSTTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN MAKING JOINT WIRE OR STOCK I-'OR JEWELRY.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 33,507, dated November 26, 1861.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ANDREW J. WILEY, of South Attleborough, in the county of Bristol and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Making Joint- NVire or Joint-Stock for the Formation of Hinge-Joints in Jewelry, and for other purposes; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the ac.- companying drawings, making part of this specication, in which- Figure l represents, longitudinally and by section, a piece of joint-wire as made by my improved method. Figs. 2 and 3 represent reverse sides of the draw-plate used in making such joint-wire, the adjoining figure showing the thickness of such plate.

Similar letters denote corresponding parts in all the gures.

The method heretofore practiced in making this joint-wire may be described as follows, referring to the gures inclosed in red lines and numbered l, 2, 3, 4. In the first place, sheet metal (generally gold, German silver, or brass) is stripped up and formed by means of a draw-plate into hollow wire, as seen in No.1. Next, a quantity of like sheet metal is stripped up, as seen in No. 2, after which the said hollow wire and fiat strips are cut into equal lengths and bound together with iine wire, as shown in No. 3, particular care being taken to have the joint in the hollow wire bear against the fiat piece, that said joint may be united in soldering the two pieces together, after which the two pieces thus bound are charged and soldered, No. 3. Finally the binding-wire is removed and the dat piece is trimmed upon one side evenly with the hollow wire, as seen in No. 4C, when the joint-wire is finished and ready for use. It will be seen that the making of jointwire by this method requires five (5) distinct operations, viz: first, the hollow wire; second, the fiat piece; third, the binding; fourth, the soldering; fifth, the clipping or trimming, all except the first being necessarily performed by hand, in view of which the object of my invention is the making of joint-wire by fewer operations, and consequently cheaper, than by the method heretofore practiced.

My invention consists in making the said j oint-wire from a single piece of metal instead of two pieces, in the manner hereinafter described and set forth.

To enable others skilled in the art to make use of my invention, I will proceed to describe the mode of operation.

Instead of using hollow wire, as heretofore, I roll up one edge of a fiat strip of metal in the form of a tube, the edge so rolled up meeting the fiat portion of the strip and is afterward united thereto by solder. This method requires but two operations, viz: first, the rolling up of the tube on the edge of the strip; second, the soldering of the rolled-up edge to the flat portion of the strip.

The operation of rolling up the edge to form the tube maybe performed by means of a drawplate formed as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the said plate being in two pieces A and B, as most convenient for cutting and polishing the die formed therein. In the cutting of said die particular attention should be paid to the formation of the half fu or groove at t; otherwise the edge of the strip cannot be rolled into the proper form, the said groove having the eifect to hold down or guide the edge of the stock which is being rolled and to form a new edge at t, Fig. l, resembling closely the trimmed edge in the old method. The die being thus formed, a metal strip of the proper width is introduced therein by bending one edge slightly at one end of the strip or by trimming off the edge at one end at a sharp angle, which, passing through the die, is seized by the grips of the draw-bench and drawn through the plate, thereby imparting to the joint-wire its proper form. This being accomplished, the edge thus folded against the fiat portion is soldered thereto in the usual way.

It is obvious that rollers, swages, and, perhaps, some other means may be employed with a certain degree of success to form the jointwire from one piece of metal by two operations, butwithout producing any new result, or that, I apprehend, more beneficially. I

2. Making the saidjoint-wreor joint-stock substantially in the manner herein shown and described.

ANDRE WT J. VILEY.

Witnesses:

ISAAC A. BROWNELL, HORACE R. BURDICK. 

